EGN NEWS DESK
A United Nations report launched on Monday mentioned that it had discovered grounds to imagine that sexual violence occurred in opposition to ladies throughout the Hamas-led Oct. 7 assault on Israel and proof that hostages being held within the Gaza Strip had been additionally assaulted. It referred to as for a full investigation.
The report issued by the U.N. Secretary General’s particular envoy on sexual violence in battle got here in response to a number of accounts of sexual violence throughout the Oct. 7 assault, in addition to allegations by Palestinian officers that Palestinian ladies in detention and within the West Bank had been assaulted. The report requested that Israel grant entry to U.N. officers to conduct thorough investigations of the Palestinian accounts.
From late January to early February, the U.N. deployed a staff of specialists to Israel and the West Bank led by Pramila Patten, the secretary-general’s particular consultant on sexual violence in battle. Ms. Patten’s workplace mentioned on the time that its representatives deliberate to collect data from survivors, witnesses, freed hostages and Palestinians just lately launched from detention.
In their report, the specialists mentioned they’d discovered “cheap grounds” to imagine that sexual violence occurred throughout the Hamas-led incursion into Israel, together with rape and gang rape in no less than three areas: the Nova music pageant web site and its environment, Road 232, and Kibbutz Re’im.
“In most of those incidents, victims first subjected to rape had been then killed, and no less than two incidents relate to the rape of ladies’s corpses,” the report mentioned.
The report mentioned it discovered “a sample of victims, largely ladies, discovered totally or partially bare, sure, and shot throughout a number of areas,” and though the proof was circumstantial the sample may point out some type of sexual violence and torture.
It additionally mentioned it had discovered “clear and convincing proof” that hostages being held in Gaza had been assaulted.
The report mentioned that it couldn’t confirm the reviews of sexual violence in a single kibbutz, Kfar Azza, though it mentioned circumstantial data indicated that some violence could have occurred. And it mentioned that two allegations of sexual violence in Kibbutz Be’eri, extensively reported by the media, had been “unfounded.”
First responders instructed The New York Times they’d discovered our bodies of ladies with indicators of sexual assault at these two kibbutzim, however The Times, in its investigation, didn’t check with the particular allegations that the U.N. mentioned had been unfounded.
“Overall, the mission staff is of the view that the true prevalence of sexual violence throughout the 7 October assaults and their aftermath could take months or years to emerge and should by no means be totally recognized,” mentioned the report.
The U.N. report mentioned that its staff additionally heard allegations of sexual violence in opposition to Palestinians that implicated Israeli safety forces and settlers.
Palestinian officers and civil society representatives, the report mentioned, instructed the U.N. staff of incidents involving “merciless, inhuman and degrading remedy of Palestinians in detention, together with varied types of sexual violence within the type of invasive physique searches, threats of rape, and extended pressured nudity, in addition to sexual harassment and threats of rape, throughout home raids and at checkpoints.”
The U.N. staff requested the federal government of Israel to permit entry to different U.N. our bodies, together with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the occupied Palestinian Territory, to allow them to conduct thorough impartial investigations into these allegations.
Ms. Patten had mentioned that her journey was not supposed to be investigative — different U.N. companies have that mandate, she mentioned — however to “give voices” to victims and survivors and discover methods to supply them assist, together with justice and accountability.
The U.N. staff included technical specialists that would interpret forensic proof, analyze open-source digital data and conduct interviews with any victims and witnesses of sexual violence, the report mentioned.
Israel has mentioned that Hamas attacked ladies sexually throughout its incursion into southern Israel and had criticized the U.N. for being too sluggish to sentence the assaults.
Hamas has denied the allegations, calling them “wartime propaganda.” It mentioned its members solely had time to “to crush the enemy’s navy websites.”
